Twelfth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

The continuing growth in the technologies of risk reengineering and the reforms in the global neo-liberal market to boost consumer market inclusion have generated different national economic policies and project implementations for the inclusion of consumers previously excluded from the credit and financial market. In Nigeria, financial inclusion has become an integral policy mantra on sustainable development, forming part of the of the core government policy and project banking system. It is believed that increased inclusion of the underbanked to the banking system will enhance their access to financial products – savings and credits, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) took vigorous measures to ensure the compliance of banks and financial houses (FHs). However, the product designs and strategies of banks and/or FHs have received little analytical studies and neither have there been studies on how the large scale poverty in Nigeria could be ameliorated through the financial market system. This study addresses the problem of poverty as a ‘risk’ and applies the intersection of socio-political economic behavioural analysis to analyse how banks and FHs, using financial market system, undertakes the ‘risk’ in the archetypical Nigeria environment. Overall, the research is predicated on the need to apply a multidisciplinary social science approach in the study of consumer credit availability, accessibility, affordability and bank-led financial inclusion strategy in Nigeria.